10 Best Practices for Ranking on YouTube and Increasing Views

Efe Dickson
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1.1K Views
Jul 16, 2022

The shopping culture of today is one of many alternatives and short attention spans. Your brand may grow quickly and reach many more people than just your target market with the aid of YouTube. This post will provide insights into some best practices and highlight strategies to use YouTube successfully in your overall marketing plan.

These are 10 YouTube recommended practices for increasing views and improving your videos.

The sections that follow examine a few best practices for selecting high-quality YouTube content that increases click-through rates, subscriber counts, and homepage visits for your business.

1. Make a distinct thumbnail

The thumbnail for your video serves as the viewer's initial introduction to your material, so you need to use a picture that actively promotes clicks. Many new viewers will decide whether or not they're interested in your channel in a split second based only on the thumbnail. Because of this, a bespoke thumbnail needs to be a key element of your YouTube marketing strategy.

Strike a mix between purpose and enjoyment while designing a personalized thumbnail. Your YouTube thumbnail functions similarly to your brand's primary logo in terms of introducing your company to new viewers. Selecting a polished image will demonstrate to viewers that the video contains the information they want. Choose one that grabs attention, fits well with your channel art, and inspires viewers.

Before attempting to post a custom thumbnail image, you need to verify your YouTube account if you haven't previously. Custom thumbnails are not available to unverified YouTube users. Without a personalized thumbnail, YouTube profiles often have worse SEO rankings.

2. Incorporate your selected keyword into the title.

A keyword-rich video title is one of the best strategies to make a popular video in terms of metadata. The rating of a term in the YouTube algorithm is directly correlated with the placement of that keyword in your title. Your video's title, description, and content all need to be relevant to the search term you want to rank for. The title of your video is your video's first opportunity to connect your content with the search intents of your viewers.

To maximize click-through rate (CTR), titles should ideally be no more than 100 characters and use emotive language, inventive capitalization, and counterintuitive messaging. This entails changing the case of some of the words in your video's title and making the title engaging by introducing a startling or surprising concept.

By choosing the kind of queries you want to rank for, you can begin your YouTube adventure properly. Make sure that every video you publish is in line with your keyword research once you've decided what your content's keywords should be. One of the main ranking variables for YouTube's algorithm is routine videos with SEO-rich material.

3. Include a keyword-rich description.

The description of your YouTube video has to contain both your target keyword and any other keywords associated with your vertical. The most crucial element, in this case, is interaction, so keep that in mind.

YouTube gives channel owners the option to design an auto-fill template that guarantees the description has all the necessary details. Your video description has to include the following essential details:

• Links to your homepage, social media accounts, and related websites.

• A request for the audience to subscribe to the call to action (CTA)

• Are there any resources listed in the video that have links

• If the film is lengthy or covers several topics, chapters

4. Add appropriate tags

Adding relevant tags is one of the simplest methods to improve your rating and guarantee that your video appears in a YouTube search. Your chances of being ranked in Google's search results are increased by tagging that gets you listed in YouTube's search results. Correctly tagging your videos will even help them appear in other users' suggested videos.

The keywords you're aiming for and the hashtags you choose should be complementary. Use brand-specific, non-capitalized tags that allude to both general and particular connections between the tag and the video content.

Additional general guidelines for tagging

• Keep your message short. Don't use ambiguous or deceptive tags.

• Maintain a mid-length. You shouldn't enter 500 characters just because YouTube allows you to do so. The recommended character count is 200–300.

• For ideas, look at rating videos. Use tags that are comparable to those of successful videos.

• Make your goal term your first tag. Organize the other tags in order of significance after the keyword you want to rank for.

It's a good idea to use YouTube's tools to help you create tags. You may get help creating strong core tags that connect to important keywords using YouTube's tag generator and auto-suggest feature.

When you tag a video, you are also describing it to YouTube and your viewers. Keep in mind that YouTube will use your tag words to connect your video with similar material, so avoid choosing keywords that are only meant to be comical or irrelevant.

5. Select the appropriate category.

On YouTube, categories may be compared to signs directing traffic to your content. The goal is to group your material into categories so at least one of your videos will appear when a user searches for that topic on YouTube.

Determining the genre of your video will allow you to choose the appropriate categories. Is it "graphic design" and "modern art"? Choose both. Choose your categories thoughtfully and succinctly. By misclassifying films or attempting to tie them to too many categories, you risk harming your video marketing's position in the rankings.

Spend some time considering how your movies are categorized if you want them to rank well. Examine their content's layout, production, and any commonalities you can find across related channels within a single category. Don't only focus on what other producers in that area are renowned for or excel at.

6. Effectively use cards and end displays

You may add YouTube cards, which are square-shaped information boxes, to your films to enhance their interest, interactivity, and entertainment value. End screens are advertising cards that you may insert in the final five to twenty seconds of your film to promote your website, further content, social media accounts, and other pertinent connections.

Cards and end screens are both made to maximize audience interaction with your films. Include a call to action for your brand, though, to make the most of placement cards and end screens.

You must be a member of the YouTube Partner Program, which has enrolment requirements that include 1,000 subscribers and more than 4,000 watch hours over the course of the previous year if you intend to display an external link to your company on your end screen. A similar restriction applies to end screens added to "Made for Kids" videos.

7. Determine what works successfully in your vertical.

It is impossible to stress the importance of completing your studies when you discover what works in your vertical. Successful YouTube marketers leverage social media trends in their campaigns.

You may use several research approaches what works successfully in your sector. Begin by researching rivals who have a high level of involvement. Examine their descriptions, video styles, and how they link their material. Don't be scared to experiment with your video ideas. In general, comedy, colour, and inventive use of music or conversation work well practically anywhere.

Consider what kind of presentation your target audience will react to while producing YouTube videos. You may create the following kinds of YouTube videos:

• Testimonials

• Tutorials

• Product reviews

• Q&A sessions

Focus your studies on the terms that your immediate rivals are using in the industry, as well as the language that potential consumers are using most frequently.

8. Post Consistently

Consistently offering material that people want to watch is a critical factor in YouTube's success. One of the main elements that determine whether someone will subscribe is this. Growing your audience is about creating a relationship that makes both current subscribers happy that they pushed the "subscribe" button and new viewers eager to subscribe, whether you post once a day or once a week.

You can also think about establishing a regular blogging schedule that you can follow. Regular production requires a lot of work, so it could be beneficial to seek outside assistance.

To display to your visitors the thumbnail and a description of the video, you may use YouTube's Premiere feature. When the footage is made public, they will also learn.

9. Make your video's chapters distinct.

As already said, breaking up lengthy films into chapters can make it simpler to navigate through them. Because consumers aren't upset with having to view lengthy segments of videos that they might not find engaging, chapters help users retain information.

Watch the stats on your dashboard to see if the chapters you've added to your video are helping you. Try changing it to an exact query that a user may use to discover this information if you see that interaction declines at a certain chapter.

10. Participate in your community

For YouTube marketing, it's crucial to keep your subscriber base active. As often as you can, reply to comments from viewers and include a call to action inviting them to subscribe at the end of each video. The majority of viewers like to feel that they are a part of a lively community. Being as interactive as you can with your subscribers might aid in the expansion of your following.

Keep in mind that a task like posting a remark demands the user's time and effort and ought to be reciprocal. To increase user engagement on your channel, respond as soon as possible to user comments and share, publish, etc. whenever you can. Working naturally occurring keywords into your comments might offer supplementary SEO when and when it is possible.

Conclusion

The length of time a viewer spends watching your YouTube video is referred to as its watch time. Ideally, you want users to watch your movies all the way through. If people become distracted before or during crucial content, it might reveal what you need to modify to gain longer views.

When it comes to expanding your brand, YouTube is one of the most comprehensive ad formats now accessible to marketers. You can use YouTube to your benefit with just a little SEO know-how, some strategically placed videos, and the appropriate sort of material.